Infinite Wisdom

"Military matters are pre-eminently political."

La Triviata

• Asked what books had most influenced him, the great Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke replied that they were, in order, The Bible, The Iliad, and Clausewitz’ On War.
• During the Crimean War. Britain managed to recruit about 3,000 mercenaries in Switzerland, despite severe government opposition, though in any case none of the volunteers ever saw active service against the Russians.
• The first air attack on warships occurred on October 6, 1912, when a Greek airplane dropped some bombs on several Ottoman vessels lying in the Dardanelles, missing them all.
• Among the many special projects considered in anticipation of the invasion of Japan, was a study to determine whether a massive dose of bombs could induce some of the 50-odd active volcanoes in the Home Islands to erupt.
• The term “shave tail” originally referred to the practice of shaving the tail of a new mule, so that the troops would both be wary of them and also know that they were untrained; in contrast, was a veteran mule, who knew the ropes, and could be trusted, often had a bell around its neck, from which arose the term “Bell Sharp”.
• Despite the fact that Germany was in economic collapse during the hyperinflation of 1923, the Weimar Republic managed to find 100 million marks in gold for the armed forces.
• The Distinguished Service Cross is the lineal descendant of the “Certificate of Merit,” a diploma awarded for valor first issued in the 1840s.
• Reportedly, during the Cold War some American submariners believed that under no circumstances should they operate at multiple zero depths (e.g., 300, 400, etc.), or set courses on the cardinal points of the compass, because that was what the Soviet Navy did, though it later turned out that these "facts” were totally bogus.

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